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Baucus has lots of options for a second career

Democratic Sen. Max Baucus of Montana doesn't seem in a hurry to decide what to do after he leaves the Senate in 2015, but he has no shortage of possible career paths, including teacher, lobbyist and rancher.

WASHINGTON — Life is full of second acts, and Democratic Sen. Max Baucus of Montana is hoping to create one for himself after he leaves the Senate in 2015, he said this week.

Baucus told the Gannett Washington Bureau on Tuesday that his primary reason for deciding not to run for a seventh term is that he wants to return home to Montana. He and his wife, Mel, are building a new house in Bozeman.

"And second, I want a second career," he said. "I want to do something else."

Baucus, 71, declined to say what kind of career he's interested in pursuing.

"Nope. None," he said in his characteristic laconic style when asked if he'd given any thought to a new career.

Former members of Congress have plenty of options when it comes to a new career.

"Some have become college presidents, some have taught, some have gone into business, gone to think tanks," said Allan Lichtman, distinguished professor of history at American University. "There are a lot of things open to him."

David Parker of Montana State University in Bozeman suggested Baucus might return to the ranch started by his great-grandfather in 1897.

"One possibility is he could take a more active role in managing that family business ... and completely walk away from anything connected to politics," Parker said.

He also could continue his long career in public service — but in a different way.

"He could teach a politics class," Parker said, like former GOP senator Dick Luger of Indiana, who teaches at the University of Indianapolis' Washington campus and is a fellow at Georgetown University's Public Policy Institute.

Former Republican senator Mike DeWine of Ohio taught government courses at Cedarville University, Ohio Northern University and Miami University after leaving office.

And former Democratic senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin was appointed a visiting professor at Marquette University Law School following his defeat in 2010. He's now a distinguished visiting professor at both Lawrence University and Stanford Law School.

Feingold also wrote a book. Parker suggested that would be a great next step for Baucus, who will have served 40 years in Congress when he steps down in January 2015.

Other former members of Congress, such as former Republican representative Denny Rehberg of Montana, have joined public policy firms. Rehberg announced last month he would join Mercury/Clark & Weinstock as co-chairman of the firm's Washington office, joining two other former members of Congress there.

Lichtman of American University said that as a former lawyer and chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, Baucus could easily become a lobbyist.

"But I don't think he wants to do that," he said.

Parker agreed that lobbying might not be foremost in Baucus' mind, although numerous former Baucus staff members have gone that route.

"He would still have to be going back to Washington a lot if he did that, and that's something he might not want to do," Parker said. The Big Sky State leaves a deep, permanent impression on the people who live there, he said.

Baucus has been living in Washington's Capitol Hill neighborhood for the past few years, but he told the Associated Press on Tuesday he doesn't want to "die here with my boots on. There is life beyond Congress."

In the past few years, the Senate also has said goodbye to longtime Sens. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, who died in office last December after serving more than 50 years; Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., who died in 2010; and Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., who passed away in office in 2009.

Fellow Democratic Sen. Jon Tester of Montana said Baucus' decision not to run for another six-year term, which would run until 2021, had less to do with a difficult re-election race in a conservative-leaning state than with a sincere desire to enjoy life back home.

"Max has been through half-a-dozen campaigns," Tester said. "He's tough as nails. I don't think that had anything to do with it."